Koala group 'cynical' about habitat protection scheme

The Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) has labelled a Queensland Government bid to buy land to expand koala habitats a public relations stunt.

The State Government will spend more than $22 million over the next three years on its koala habitat program

About 150 applications have been received from landholders in areas including the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Somerset, Scenic Rim and Lockyer Valley.

AKF chief executive officer Deborah Tabart says the State Government has a bad track record on this issue.

"All of these initiatives sound good on the surface," she said.

"I'm not saying that spending $5 million on buying some koala habitats is a bad thing, but the Queensland Government is actually reducing every single piece of environmental legislation that could protect the koalas.

"I have to put my cynical hat on and say that it's just a giant public relations exercise."

She says a complete attitude change is required.

"I have been in my job now for 24 years," she said.

"I have repeatedly gone to director-generals or ministers and we've given them lists of trees.

"Those list of trees should be given to developers and then they're told, 'you have to build your developments around those trees because you if cut them down and the koalas go on the move they will get killed by a car or a dog'.

"If I saw the Government doing this along with constraints on developers, making sure that habitats aren't knocked down in the first place, then I would absolutely applaud it but what I see is that they reduce legislation.

"We've just spent 12 years showing the Queensland Government is incapable of protecting the koalas and I think that's the same as the new Government."